Successful fabrication of multilayer printed circuit boards requires bonding together of copper and resin layers. However, direct bonding of copper and resin layers does not provide sufficient bonding strength. Therefore, it is common to improve copper-resin bonding strength by providing surface roughness to the copper surface, whereby mechanical bonding between the copper and resin is enhanced.
One common method of providing surface roughness is by depositing on the copper surface an oxide layer, such as cuprous oxide, cupric oxide, or the like. Formation of the oxide layer, which turns the pink copper surface a black-brown color, creates minute unevenness on the copper surface which provide an interlocking effect between the copper surface and resin, thus improving bonding strength.
However, copper oxides are readily degraded and dissolved upon contact with acid. Because various acid treatments are used in later stages of fabrication of multilayer circuit boards, oxide layer deposition has been problematic at best. In particular, through-holes are drilled through multilayer circuit boards, and the through-holes plated with copper to interconnect the circuitry of the several layers. As part of the copper-plating process, the through-holes are exposed to acids, such as HCl. Acid attack on the oxide layer in the region surrounding the through-holes is commonly referred to in the industry as "pink ring", because as acid strips the black-brown oxide layer from the surface, a ring of bare pink copper becomes evident. The problem of copper oxide vulnerability to acid has been approached in a number of patents, e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,642,161 and 4,717,439.
An alternative to building up a copper oxide coating on the copper surface is to micro-etch the copper surface to roughen the same; and it is to this method of surface roughening that the present invention is directed. Most commonly, this etching solution is an aqueous solution of a mineral acid, such as sulfuric acid, and hydrogen peroxide. Such a solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,106, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. The micro-etching process roughens the copper, probably by oxidation of the metallic copper; the resulting topography on the metal surface provides better adhesion to resin. The micro-etched surface appears light red/brown to a dark brown, probably the result of the topography of the surface and some residual copper oxide that is formed in the etching process. Micro-etched copper circuitry, when exposed to acid-based copper plating of through holes, is likewise subject to formation of "pink ring" through acid attack of the copper circuitry traces around the through-holes. The formation of "pink ring" is detrimental at least to appearance and is a potential cause of failure of multi-layer printed circuit boards.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide acid-resistance to micro-etched copper circuitry so as to prevent or minimize acid attack problems such as "pink ring". In this regard, it is to be understood that there are a wide variety of possible processing steps in forming printed circuitry, and the invention, though described relative to a few common processing procedures, is generally applicable to providing acid-resistance to micro-etched copper.